Jamie Nye: Next year will be the true test for John Gibbons

There will be much postmortem on the Blue Jays season and where the money needs to go for getting the Jays over the hump, but the bottom line is this — they need a manager like Terry Francona, who made it look big league versus little league against John Gibbons in the ALCS.

Gibbons can manage a lineup that hits as hard and scores as much as the Jays. But in the playoffs, the hardest hitting teams rarely win. The air cools, the ball doesn’t travel as far and the pitching gets better.

Where you have to manage is small ball sacrifice, but especially pull the right buttons with the bullpen and matchups. Francona was nearly perfect.

Gibbons sat and watched. Now, I will concede Francona’s relief pitchers are far superior than what the Jays and Gibbons deploy and that’s up to management to address this offseason.

Gibbons deserves another shot, but if this team can’t hit the long ball with both Bautista and Encarnacion heading to free agency, Gibbons will be the manager he was in his first go around in Toronto — below average.